Having to make a decision for dinner last weekend before a movie, I was trying to be smart and told Lorna (my petrol heroine) that I am bringing her to a pretty interesting place without first giving her the restaurant’s name. We then walked past Sushi Zanmai, and she told me “my sister and I went to another Zanmai place last week, the one downstairs”

“Pasta Zanmai?” I asked. She said yah. That was exactly the place I thought I’d surprise her with, so you can imagine what an ass it made me feel. Well the important thing is that we still ended up there and I was able to finally give Pasta Zanmai a try.

pretty nice interior with an integrated shop

Pasta Zanmai is actually from the same group that runs RakuZen at Subang Jaya, Chulan Square, as well as the Sushi Zanmai branches. I have always had positive impressions at their establishments, so my expectation was rather high stepping into this place.

It was a rather busy Saturday dinner time, we decided to sit at the bar right in front of the glass shielded kitchen rather than wait for a table. The interior decoration was pretty nice, with ample lighting, comfortable chairs, and a busy pace.

crab meat avocado spaghetti, Japanese curry rice

The menu came accompanied with pictures of most dishes, which makes ordering that much easier. I couldn’t resist the combination of kani (crab) and avocado with pasta, and Lorna ordered the Japanese curry chicken rice. We also asked for ikura (salmon roe) and teriyaki hotate (scallop) as appetizers. A big pitcher of ice fruit tea was shared.

Despite the crowd, food didn’t take long to arrive, and they were good! Ikura was a bit smallish in serving size, but I guess there isn’t much to complain as the quality was good and the price reasonable. My spaghetti was really delicious, good portion of avocado and kani (real crab and not crab sticks) with the slightly salty pasta sauce that wasn’t over powering. The ebiko (flying fish roe) sprinkled on the pasta gave it an added sophistication as well. I really liked it.

ikura, hotate, and the giant ice fruit tea

The curry chicken rice was true to the taste as well, slightly sweet and not exactly spicy. I like the fact that they use real Japanese rice in this dish. As for the teriyaki hotate (scallop), they were so sweet and succulent I was so glad we ordered them.

Total bill came to Rm 100.05 including tax and service charge. Highest priced item was my RM 25 pasta while the other dishes and drinks ranges from RM 12 to RM 22. Give it a try!

Address:
Pasta Zanmai
G210B, Ground Floor Promenade
1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
Tel: 03-7728 1210

Others:
Masak-masak
Brought up 2 share
blueepinkk

Tags:  1-utama,  dining,  Japanese-Food,  kani,  mall,  pasta,  spaghetti

Posted by KY | 28 Comments »

I was invited by photographer Stephen Wong to meet with Chef Marco from Switzerland at the Seri Pacific Hotel for a pasta tasting session last Tuesday. It was a chance not to be missed, despite the treacherous weather, we forged ahead with the plan.

chef Marco preparing four pasta sauce at the same time

When everyone finally arrived, we were introduced to chef Marco and his assistant Urs (pronounced uuhhrs). They were very friendly people. The good chef then went to do what he’s good at, making pasta.

Chef Marco was working with four pans at the concurrently, each with a different sauce. Two creamy sauce and two tomato based sauce. Considering the fact that this guy set the Malaysian Book of Record by preparing 402 sauce in 7 hours running 12 pans at the same time, this was no sweat whatsoever. Personally, I can only cook soup & fry another dish of vege while having the rice cooker running at the same time. =/

the four flavors

I was asking chef Marco about the name of his dishes, but he told me basically he doesn’t really name the dishes as he has over 700 recipes and it’ll be pointless to name them all.

Then of course, it’s eating time.

The four dishes were all very good. Two creamy seafood pastas each with its distinct taste, one with an Indian hint with the use of tumeric while another with sweetness to bring out the taste of the fresh shrimps. The two tomato based sauce, one vegetarian and the other with chicken tasted awesome as well. The fresh and sun dried tomato, the baby bok choy and the chicken was a surprising mix, but proved to be a good one. A slight oriental hint to the traditionally Italian dish.

the camwhores, and the cook book

After the excellent dinner, we were given a copy of the cook book “Pasta in Play”, authored by Chef Marco with photographs from Stephen Wong. The book is made in Malaysia and will be available at bookstores very soon (more on this once I get the details). Chef Marco is also planning to open a restaurant in KL sometime next year. He promised that he’ll stick to the true traditional ingredients (i.e: cooking with white wine in some dishes) in the new restaurant, I can’t wait.

Kelly Kel Li and Natalie, who took so many pictures of themselves it gave the chef and his assistant (and me!) a cultural shock has already written their piece on the experience too.

Update:
FA and foodlover’s takes

Tags:  dining,  food,  italian,  KL,  ky,  marco,  pasta,  swiss

Posted by KY | 13 Comments »